Frozen confections such as ice cream are popular products, but have a well-known disadvantage that they are rather messy and in particular cannot be held by hand without melting on the consumer's fingers. Therefore, frozen confections are not as convenient for eating on the move as other snack products such as chocolate bars or cereal bars.
In order to overcome this, frozen confections have been coated with dry particles (e.g. pieces of cereal, biscuit, nut etc.). For example U.S. Pat. No. 2,433,140 discloses a method wherein a block of ice cream is forced through a heated guide tube into a hopper containing nut pieces. The nut pieces adhere to the softened surface of the ice cream which is then refrozen to secure the pieces. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 3,036,533 discloses a method for applying a coating of particles to ice cream articles. The particles are thrown by air streams into contact with the soft, tacky surface of the ice cream and become imbedded in it. However, although these coatings provide a barrier between the consumer's fingers and the ice cream, the coatings remain as individual particles. The particles are liable to fall off and the coating does not provide any rigidity, so as the ice cream warms up, the product is still liable to be squashed by the consumer's fingers.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,242,022 discloses an alternative method for making a coated frozen confection product, by applying a fatty material to the surface of the frozen confection, cooling the fatty-coated product so that the fatty coating is tacky, applying cereal flakes onto the tacky fatty-coated surface so that the flakes adhere to the fatty layer. This method produces a continuous, rigid coating of chocolate in which cereal flakes are embedded. Nonetheless, the chocolate is still susceptible to melting when the product is in the consumer's fingers. Moreover the amount of chocolate required is quite high, and the amount of cereal flakes is quite low. Consumers are increasingly health conscious and are looking for products containing less fat. Therefore there remains a need for coated frozen confections that have improved nutritional qualities and are convenient to eat.